Can-It-Forward Day

As part of Can-It-Forward Day, three Seattle chefs led how-to demos on incorporating preserved goodies into your everyday cooking. Diane LaVonne, owner of Diane’s Market Kitchen and a friend of CAA since the beginning, showed us how you can zip up regular ole tuna salad with some home-brined cucumber pickles. She’s pictured, above, under the tent at Pike Place Market, with a beautiful piece of Pacific Albacore tuna, which is now in season. The crowd loved her pickle-y spin, and she’s dished up the details for this goodie, below.

Diane LaVonne’s Tuna Salad (with a canned pickle-y twist)

Servings: 10

You can also make tuna cakes by forming the mixture into small patties (this can be done a day in advance and kept chilled). Heat a pan on high heat and add olive oil. Lightly dust the patties with flour and brown on both sides in the pan. Remember, this is for a textural element, the tuna has already been cooked until it’s food safe. Serve warm with homemade tartar sauce.

Cut the tuna fillet into pieces about 1 inch thick. Heat a pan on the stove over high heat. Add enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom. Pan sear the tuna on one side. (With fresh albacore this takes about 1 minute) then flip the steaks, lower the heat to medium, cover and cook until medium. (with fresh albacore this takes about 2 minutes)Cool and flake, combine with other dry ingredients. Add enough mayonnaise to bind the mixture together. Taste, adjust flavor with lemon juice, salt, or pepper if needed.

We are catching up on sleep, but still basking in the glow of Can-It-Forward weekend. Over two days, we presented a total of seven canning demos and three chef “use up what you put up” demos. If you aren’t inspired by now to “put up,” we don’t know what will! We had so much fun, and we hope you either stopped by Seattle’s Pike Place Market to say hi or checked out the live Web cast on freshpreserving.com. For those who couldn’t participate over the weekend, the archived videos will be available in coming days, so stay tuned for those details. For now, we’ll give you some eye candy, a photographic journey of some of the weekend’s most delicious moments.

And since this week is our third annual Can-a-Rama, tell us what you’re canning this week.

Kim O’Donnel, cookbook author and founder of CAA, shows Margaret Larson how easy and tasty it is to can. To view the full segment, please click here.

You can can too! Join us online this Saturday, August 13th, for live-streaming demonstrations as part of National Can-It-Forward Day. View the full schedule of events here and be sure to sign up to get your log-in info on the FreshPreserving.com website.

Learn tips and tricks from Canning Across America founder on how to host your very own canning party for National Can-It-Forward Day on August 13th.

The day-long event is free and open to the public and will include several how-to canning demos that will be streaming live on FreshPreserving.com 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM PST. Viewers will be able to ask questions and post comments in real time.

Go here for the full schedule of the Aug. 13-14 Can-It-Forward events.

In the days leading up to Can-It-Forward Day & our third annual Can-a-Rama kickoff, we’ll be giving a daily shout out to the dedicated group of folks who will be on location showing the ropes of everyday preserving and who have been instrumental to our mission of reviving the lost art of “putting up” food through safe food preservation and community building.

The Shibaguyz and their Shibakidz.

That’s Shannon & Jason Mullett-Bowlsby, aka the Shibaguyz, who live & work in Seattle with their own pack of Shiba Inu known as the Shibakidz. They “re-learned” canning a decade ago taking the learned knowledge passed down from their grandparents and parents, mixing it with modern scientifically tested data. Known for their mantra “If we can do it, anyone can,” the much sought after instructors have a passion for teaching “Heritage Skills” such as canning, cooking and gardening along with fine fiber skills like crochet, knitting, and spinning for which their patterns are internationally recognized. Look for their new cookbook arriving in stores in 2012 and check out their new crochet and knit design books in 2011 and 2012. You can connect with them via Twitter: @shibaguyz or on their Facebook page.

What inspires them to can: We admit it. We’re cheap. We started canning because it was the most cost-effective way to have really great tomato sauce during the dark days of winter into spring. We keep doing it because it allows us to control what goes in our bodies. No artificial flavors, preservatives, or additives appear in our pantry.

The Shibaguyz will be leading the pepper jelly demo Saturday, August 13 (3 p.m. PST) at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Go here for the full schedule of the Aug. 13-14 Can-It-Forward events.

In the days leading up to Can-It-Forward Day & our third annual Can-a-Rama kickoff, we’ll be giving a daily shout out to the dedicated group of folks who will be on location showing the ropes of everyday preserving and who have been instrumental to our mission of reviving the lost art of “putting up” food through safe food preservation and community building.

Jeanne Sauvage.

That’s Jeanne. Not only is she editor of this site, she’s responsible for having schooled many of us how to safely put up seasonal produce. Jeanne just finished whipping her first cookbook manuscript into shape; her Gluten-Free Holiday Baking will be on the shelves in Fall 2012. You can connect with her via her blog Art of Gluten-Free Baking and on Twitter: @fourchickens

What inspires Jeanne to can:Originally, I was drawn to canning out of curiosity. Once I learned how to do it, I realized that it appealed to my creative side and to my desire to get back to more simple food. Also, I have gluten intolerance and many food allergies, and with my own home-canned foods I know what is in every jar.

Jeanne will be leading the mixed berry jam demos Saturday, August 13 (8 a.m. & 2 p.m. PST) at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Her trusty assistant is seasoned food writer Leslie Kelly, whose work appears on Seattle Weekly’s Voracious and Amazon’s Al Dente blogs, among others. You can connect with on Twitter: @lesliedines

What inspires Leslie to can:The long gray winters of the Pacific Northwest are what get me jazzed about preserving the bright, brilliant flavors of summer. My grandmother first showed me the basics, but I had shoved canning to the back burner until I got hooked up two years ago with the Canning Across America preservationists and got fired up once again! I have built small batch canning into my weekly cooking routine and my confidence grows with each success. I even create my own recipes now, with a recent apricot chutney being the new house favorite.

Go here for the full schedule of the Aug. 13-14 Can-It-Forward events.

In the days leading up to Can-It-Forward Day & our third annual Can-a-Rama kickoff, we’ll be giving a daily shout out to the dedicated group of folks who will be on location showing the ropes of everyday preserving and who have been instrumental to our mission of reviving the lost art of “putting up” food through safe food preservation and community building.

Brook Hurst Stephens.

That’s Brook. She joined our ranks this spring and our only regret is why it took so long for us to meet. Her passion for preserving is infectious, and we think you’ll agree when you meet her on Can-It-Forward Day. Brook has a lively blog aptly named Learn to Preserve, where she’s constantly sharing the lessons learned at the stove.

What inspires her to can:Growing up the Wenatchee Valley of Washington state, everyone had a fruit tree in their back yard, if not an entire orchard. As a child, many of my friends had rows of beautiful jars of homemade pickles, jams and fruit butters in their pantries. To me, all of that homemade goodness was irresistibly delicious and more than once I invited myself to someone’s house for an “after-school snack” based mainly on the fact that their mom made the best sweet syrup-y peaches or bread & butter pickles.

Since a young age I’ve enjoyed gardening and cooking; these two things seemed to progress naturally to learning how to preserve. Once I discovered how to duplicate the magical alchemy of fruit + sugar + heat = jam in my own kitchen, I became obsessed with preserving.

Today I find my inspiration all around me, all year ’round. Whether it’s the wild huckleberries on your walk through the woods, the unwanted crab apples from a neighbor’s tree or one of the many farms and farmers markets in Washington state, I promise you can find something to “put up” on a daily basis.

Brook will be leading the canned tomatoes demo Saturday, August 13 (Noon PST) at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Her trusty assistant is food writer Leslie Seaton. (Go here for the full schedule of the Aug. 13-14 Can-It-Forward events.) You can connect with Brook on twitter: @LearnToPreserve.

In the days leading up to Can-It-Forward Day & our third annual Can-a-Rama kickoff, we’ll be giving a daily shout out to the dedicated group of folks who will be on location showing the ropes of everyday preserving and who have been instrumental to our mission of reviving the lost art of “putting up” food through safe food preservation and community building.

Judith H. Dern.

That’s Judith Dern. An enthusiastic cook since her teens who thought she’d found heaven when she discovered Pacific Northwest blackberry patches, Judith works at Seattle’s very own Allrecipes.com, the world’s largest digital food brand. She’s also a published author; her latest work (co-authored), The Food and Cooking of Scandinavia: Sweden, Norway & Denmark, will be released August 16.

What inspires her to can:Making berry jams in summertime to share as affordable Christmas gifts inspired my first canning endeavors, and linked me with childhood memories of picking raspberries with my grandfather. There was also instant gratification for me when people tasted their first spoonful of summer sweetness. I’ve since added dilly beans and asparagus to my repertoire. Who can resist capturing the season’s bounty in sparkling jars and sharing the delights with friends on a cold winter day?

Judith will be leading the Dill Pickle demo Saturday, August 13 (10 a.m. PST) at Seattle’s Pike Place Market. (Go here for the full schedule of the Aug. 13-14 Can-It-Forward events.) Connect with Judith on Allrecipes.com, where she’s got a thing for blueberry pie pops.

During our last giveaway, many of you shared memories of canning with grandparents and how that experience motivates you to pass on the joy of preservation to your families. In honor of those experiences we have hand-selected great products that will help make your next canning adventure one that the whole family can enjoy.

One winner will receive an assortment of products to share with guests at your next canning party including: three Ball Blue Book® Guide to Preserving valued at $5.99; three Ball® RealFruit™ Classic Flex Batch Pectin valued at $4.99; and six “Save $5.00 On One Package, Any Size or Style of Kerr® or Ball® Jars with Lids and Bands for Preserving” coupons.

Canning Across America (CAA) is a nationwide, ad hoc collective of cooks, gardeners and food lovers committed to the revival of the lost art of “putting up” food. Our goal is to promote safe food preservation and the joys of community building through food. We believe in celebrating the bounty of local and seasonal produce and taking greater control of our food supply. Together, we can.